Four reasons to be a freelancer

After so long time outside of permanent employment, I’ve begun to wonder if there is a job that will a) have me, and b) that I would give up freelancing for. To help me think this through, I have begun to wonder how I ended up as a freelancer.

This was prompted by Doug Belshaw’s excellent post on his two years of consulting – and it is working well for him and for many others. However, (possibly because I have been doing it for so long) the relative instability of income, the constant business development (ie self promotion), and the relative isolation make it a curious choice for an increasingly risk-averse extrovert like me. So, what’s made it work for me so far?

I love learning.

In my twenties, I believed the lie that if you got formal qualifications: developed a love of learning; that this would be valued in the workplace. While my eclectic and enquiry-based learning has been rich and meaningful for me, I can number on one hand the times when my employer valued my learning behaviours.

However, as a freelancer, my ability to bring analogies from other fields (history and science, especially) is often highly valued by my clients. These are useful filters to explore challenging problems and to find approaches towards solutions.

Being a freelancer means I have the space to remain curious and open to new learning – and for that to be valued. If only I could find somewhere to work where I could keep learning.

I’m a ‘Jack of All Trades’…

…where most jobs descriptions seek a master of one. I find my mind works best making connections rather than in digging deep. Though I’d admit to being an edtech geek, I do not feel comfortable with the mantle of the expert, and will happily point to someone who really does know about a topic rather than pretend.  However, in a world where the self-publicist generally wins, admitting when you don’t know something or passing the torch to someone else is all too often seen as weakness.

All too often, I’ve sat in with a project team where a developer is asked about some new tech when he (all too often it is a ‘he’) only really feels comfortable talking about the one he is an expert in. Or watched a marketing person avoid using social media channels because they know the process of generating print materials inside out. These experts end up trapped by their domains and the organisations they work for miss out on their potential for interdisciplinary working.

While I do know a lot about the education sector, I have been responsible for activities in a number of different roles across this diverse area – including educator, producer, marketeer, salesperson – and from Early Years into HE. This means that I am well placed to help coordinate teams and to help find ways for evolving the work they do.

However, I often find that this perspective means that managers think I am only interested in “strategy” work – as that is how most organisations place this interdisciplinary view – but, this is a mistake.

For one thing, very little time / resource at work has strategic value but almost all of it impacts across teams and domains. Every team needs someone (not just a project manager) who can see outside of their field of expertise.

More often than not, the timeliness of the work I do as a freelancer is that I can often spot jams and build bridges quickly and sensitively because I know (a little) about each trade and respect the work they do.

I work as hard as is healthy

This has not always been a positive for my career, I am afraid to admit. In our high-stakes culture, I have struggled to compete with those who will put in more hours than me. I do not enjoy working harder than others and tend to avoid stress. I will actively seek an easier way to do a job, before pulling my neck in and knuckling down. I will question a deadline, challenge scope and find the priorities before overcommitting myself.

I can work hard – but, in all honesty, I’ve got soft, nimble hands, with few callouses. I’m not work shy- as nearly two years working in restaurant kitchens proves. I have seen that working hard doesn’t always equal more value or return. If a job cannot be done within the hours budgeted for it – then, often, it is the fault of the resource manager – not the resource.

Most hard working people I know seem to chose to work too much with little extra impact, for too little respect or return, and for too long. I do not want to do that, and have come to resent managers who, because this is what they did, expect this from their team members.

I care about my mental and physical health. I am not a ‘stress bunny’. I don’t want to work in the evenings and weekends. I like being with my family. I think most people are the same.

As a freelance resource,  as I am paid by the hour or day, clients have huge respect for my time. I like this. If more jobs respected people in this way, there would be many more happy employees.

I do not suffer fools and/or bullies, gladly

I’ve been lucky to have had more good managers than bad – but I have walked out of a few jobs where the office politics has been overwhelming. My patience levels for poor practice, discrimination and petty personal differences are way too low for most organisations. I like doing a job well and, while I have a very healthy ego, do not lose track of the ‘end user’ – whether that is the children in a class, the customers of a business or the community using a service. They are always more important and more interesting, and I’d rather focus on them.

I assume that, sometime, cooperation can be balanced by a little healthy conflict, to resolve a difference of opinion. If I’ve cocked up or got something wrong, I expect someone to call me on it – as long as it’s ‘Kind, Specific and Helpful.

The answers “well, that’s how we have always done this” – “because I said so” – “those guys are always blocking me” reveal one of the great fault lines in the modern workplace – where we often talk a great game of cooperation, but tend to structure the workplace in hierarchical silos.

Being a freelancer keeps me well out of these unhealthy dynamics and mean that (mostly) I can chose who I work for. If someone is being an arse, I can walk away. I can also stand up against bad managers, speak truth to power, and draw attention to discrimination when I see it.

I have not given up

If the right job came along, I’d jump at it. I am sure there are workplaces that allow space for learning, value the connections between teams, respect the work/life balance and the people who work there.

There might even be some places where they need someone who can create and manage learning experiences,…someone like me! Perhaps you could point them my way.

Maybe I’ll end up creating a great place to work again. Maybe, you are looking for a co-founder or setting up a cooperative. If you are, I’d love to know more.

Until then, I’ll keep on, keeping on.